


Beauty and the Flustered

by westflash



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, The Flash - Freeform, flash headcanon, teen westallen, the flash fluff, westallen - Freeform, westallen fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-04-25 19:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4974073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westflash/pseuds/westflash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry's having some difficulties hiding his affection while Iris and him get ready to/go to the homecoming dance.  Angst ensues.  Fluff all around.  Fic takes place before, during, and after the dance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Go easy on me, I haven't done this in a few months, and this is my first WA fic/headcanon. Was feeling inspired to write WA after lack of them in 2x01. Enjoy ^_^

Sparkles, tubes of makeup, high heels, and various dresses covered the floors of the West household as Iris rushed around in a blur, trying to prepare for the homecoming dance at the very last minute. As soon as she modeled an outfit for Barry and Joe, she convinced herself that the look was all wrong and immediately went back upstairs to pick something else. 

Between outfits, Joe noticed Barry staring blankly at the wall, strangely looking both elated and miserable. Of course, Joe knew why, but Barry wasn’t going to say anything, so neither was Joe. 

Pounding down the stairs, Iris shouted out, “I feel really confident about this one. Close your eyes, I want you to be surprised!”

Barry and Joe made a point out of covering up their eyes with their hands, Barry hiding an uncomfortable laugh behind his arms. “Ta-da!” Iris exclaimed, twirling with her arms out. She wore a stunning form-fitting cocktail dress, black fabric covered with blue lace. 

“You look beautiful, baby” Joe said, exhausted of being a runway judge.

Iris groaned. “You have literally said that about every single outfit. ‘Beautiful’ doesn’t cut it. What do you think, Barry?”

Barry had been staring at Iris in that dress perhaps too intently, because Iris had to repeat herself before he realized she was asking him a question. “Uh, you look great, as usual.” Iris raised her eyebrows, smirking. Trying to fill the silence that ensued, Barry continued talking. “Can we get going? Becky’s going to kill me if we’re even a minute late, you know how she hates when I’m late…you know what, I just remembered. I forgot something upstairs. My wallet, or the house key. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll be right back down. Yeah.” With that, Barry ran upstairs faster than a bullet, leaving behind a confused Iris and embarrassed Joe.

“Um, so I think this finally the one” Iris declared, feeling even more confident after that performance. Joe huffed in agreement. “I think you’re right.” 

Iris sighed and decided upon her jet-black pumps, which was the quickest decision she made that night. Just after she finished checking her hair and makeup in the mirror, Barry came downstairs, his hair messy and his face unusually flushed. She chose to ignore his appearance and asked, “Are you ready?” Barry smiled his iconic grin. “Yes, yes I am.” 

Before they could make it out the front door, Joe stopped them for a picture, as all parents do before the big dance. Iris buried her face in her hands, shaking her head, and Barry looked around the room, diverting his attention anywhere but the Iris and Joe. “You know, it would only take 4 seconds if you guys actually cooperated”, Joe said. They knew they weren’t going to wiggle themselves out of this situation. Eventually, they put their arms around each other and smiled grimly into the camera. The flash went off, and so did Barry and Iris just four seconds later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun time with Westallen, and Becky Cooper is not very happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay another chapter. Enjoyyy

Their walk to the school was, at first, very uncomfortable. Every time Iris tried to initiate small talk, Barry would simply nod and stare at the ground solemnly. They walked in silence for much of the 20 minutes. However, towards the end of their walk, Barry started stepping on crunchy leaves that had fallen off the trees in the chill of the late autumn months. Iris caught on to his game and started chasing leaves too, in an attempt to loosen the peculiar tension that had developed between them all of a sudden. It felt like they were kids again, laughing and teasing each other as they raced each other down the sidewalk. They reached the end and collapsed into each other, barely able to breathe. There was nothing else in the world, no one else, except for Barry and Iris. This was the first time in a long time where Barry felt confident that one day, he and Iris could be more than friends. 

They only noticed that they were at the school when a voice interrupted their laughter. “Um, hello?” said Becky, eying the best friends suspiciously. Barry cleared his throat and stepped away from Iris. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the ground, as he always does in uncomfortable situations. Iris apologized politely to Becky, smiling her brilliant smile, and rushed away to meet up with friends. 

Barry wished Iris hadn’t left him alone with Becky, because he knew he was going to get a talking-to. Becky looped her arm in with Barry’s, and as they walked into the school she said, “I hope you realize you’re ten minutes late. I’ve been waiting out here, alone, for ten minutes longer than I needed to. Do you even know how many pitiful looks I got from the other couples?” 

He called it. “No, I-”. 

“Do you, maybe, have something to say to me?” Becky interrupted, clearly irritated. 

“Uh…I’m…sorry?” Barry replied, despite the fact that he would have apologized regardless of what she told him to do.

“Is that a question? Should I be apologizing to you?”

Barry sighed. Yes, he should not have been late and kept his girlfriend waiting. He probably shouldn’t have been acting that way with Iris, either, especially in front of Becky. It wasn’t even why she was mad that bothered Barry. It was her ever-condescending tone of voice and word choice that frustrated him to his very core. It was her lack of respect for Iris and his friendship with her. Most importantly, it was the fact that Iris was all he could think about when he was with Becky. Barry was positive he wouldn’t rack up the courage to ask Iris out for a very long time, nor find the ability to break it off with Becky anytime soon. For the time being he would try to put up with Becky and her mannerisms, however obnoxious. He kept hoping that with time, she would grow on him.

“No, no. I’m sorry. Truly sorry. Won’t happen again.” 

Becky stared him down and pursed her lips. Barry avoided her gaze, wondering whether or not she was convinced by his apology, but at this point, he really didn’t care. He handed their tickets to the student volunteers, and they entered the auditorium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's definitely going to be more chapters with more Iris/WA than this one...just keep up with it :) Becky will be gone soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iris cheers up her best friend with a dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if I got them right, but I certainly enjoyed writing it. hope you enjoy reading it.

Barry had always hated school dances, but this year he had a girlfriend, and this girlfriend forced him to go. He sat in the corner against the wall fiddling with his thumbs, as Becky danced and chatted with her own friends, leaving him alone. He was actually grateful for this, as opposed what others may have thought. 

As much as Iris enjoyed being with her friends at homecoming, she still made an effort to check on Barry periodically from a distance. She wasn’t especially shocked that he stayed in the same place, but it made her feel bad, nevertheless. If someone was going to cheer him up, it would be her. At one point towards the end of the night, she excused herself from her friends and made her way to Barry’s corner. 

He was staring blankly at the ground, so he didn’t notice when Iris came up and nudged his leg with her pumps. “Hi there” she said, glowing. She was genuinely having a good time, something Barry was certainly not planning on doing. 

Barry looked up. “Iris…hi. You having fun?”

“Yes, very much, actually. I was just over there, dancing with friends, when I realized there was this total loser sitting all alone in the corner, and I wanted to cheer him up” she said tauntingly. 

He laughed. “Well, you know how I really don’t like being at dances. I thought I could spare myself from some torture by taking myself out of the picture.”

Iris had been expecting an answer like this. She wanted to make him feel better somehow, but nothing really came to mind. “Why would you buy tickets for the dance if you didn’t want to come?”

Barry nodded his head towards the dance floor. Iris looked over and saw Becky doing a line-dance with her friends. Barry shrugged. “She said if I didn’t buy tickets and go with her she would be a ‘total outcast’ and would ‘never be accepted back into her social group.’”

That reasoning was so ridiculous, Iris had to chuckle. Her laugh was infectious, and Barry found it impossible not to as well. They sighed simultaneously. Suddenly, they heard the opening melody of a familiar song, a favorite in the West-Allen household. “Care for a dance, sir?” Iris asked, bowing and holding out her hand. 

Barry had no words. His legs felt like jelly. His heart was pounding, trying to escape from the confines of his chest. Iris got tired of waiting for an answer and grabbed his arm with her open hand. He gave in and they made their way to the dance floor. He grimaced at the prospect at dancing in front of actual people, and as she put her arms around him, he whispered “Iris, I really don’t think I ca-”. Iris interrupted him with a sharp “eh”, and once he realized he didn’t have much of a choice, he put his arms around Iris and they swayed together.

For their whole lives, Iris had always been taller than Barry, but now that they were in high school Barry was at least ten inches taller than her, maybe around 6 inches when she was in heels. She laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes as they swayed together. Barry could feel his cheeks burning as some of their fellow classmates stood in a circle around him and Iris, watching them. The guys were enthusiastically giving Barry thumbs up, and the Iris’s friends were whispering to one another, giggling. Becky was nowhere to be seen. He closed his eyes as well so he could try to block out their audience. It worked very effectively. At that moment, there was nowhere else he wanted to be than in the arms of his best friend. 

As the final notes of the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” played out, their fans went back to their cliques, and Iris told Barry, “Loosen up a bit. You’re not that bad of a dancer.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before going back off to find her friends. Barry stood there in shock for a few moments, and grinning like an idiot, shuffled back to his corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's probably going to be one more chapter. we shall see...


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angst and cuteness. Just read it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk. 
> 
> Enjoy ^_^

Barry had no reason to leave his corner for what little was left of the dance. He kept reliving the slow dance over and over in his mind, and was perfectly content doing so. He knew Iris hadn’t intended it to be anything romantic, just as a courteous gesture towards her clearly depressed best friend. It didn’t matter to Barry though. 

He snapped back into reality as Becky showed up about twenty feet in front of him. She did not look very pleased. Barry scrambled to stand up. He fast-walked out of the auditorium, with Becky right on his heels, much to his dismay. Barry managed to get into the men’s room before she caught up to him. 

“Barry, I know you’re in there! I’m not leaving until you come out!” she shouted, obviously not caring who heard her. 

He thought he was trapped, but then he noticed that this bathroom had a window at the top of the handicapped stall. Luckily it was already open, and Barry’s tall frame made it easy for him to climb out, headfirst unfortunately. He somersaulted painfully onto the grass and started home, since the dance was basically over anyways.  
_______________________________  
Back at the dance, Iris was looking around for Barry when Becky came up to her. She was about to say hi when Becky said, “I heard around that you danced with my boyfriend.” Iris winced. She knew the word would get back to Becky eventually, but that didn’t make her feel any better about it. “Can you give him this next time you see him?” Becky held out a small folded piece of paper ripped from some textbook. 

Iris took it and tucked it in her purse. Becky was about to storm off when Iris told her, “He looked so lonely in the corner. I had no ulterior motive.” Becky rolled her eyes, apparently unconvinced. Iris would’ve apologized, had she not known what Becky had been doing during the slow dance. “And to be honest, whatever we did was nothing compared to what you did with Charlie Davis.”

Through clenched teeth, Becky growled, “Whatever, it was over between Barry and I way before you danced with him. Neither of us admitted it.” She walked off, and down the hall Iris saw her whisper something to Charlie Davis, kiss him, then walk off with linked arms. 

Iris’s heart broke for Barry. She had no idea why he stayed with her. Nevertheless, it hurt Iris that he dealt with Becky for so long only to have her cheat on him. Iris made an executive decision not to tell Barry about Becky cheating on him, at least not tonight. She wanted to spare him the inevitable pain for now, especially on homecoming night. She left the school and started walking home, crunching leaves along the way.  
_______________________________  
Barry was curled up on the couch when Iris got home, his jacket slung on the stairs. The mess of Iris’s fashion rampage remained all over the place. She slumped next to him and handed him the paper, sighing. 

He read the paper, trying to keep his face neutral but failing. Iris saw this internal battle in his eyes. He finished reading, crumpled up the paper, and tilted his head back, chuckling softly. She giggled, asking him what it said over and over. When he wouldn’t respond, she tickled his side with her foot, hoping that would urge an answer out of him. He leaped off the couch to get away and threw the crumpled paper across victoriously the room. Raising his arms like he had just won a gold medal, he shouted, “I’M FREE!” 

At this display, Iris stared at him in awe and laughed. “What did it say, dammit?” 

Barry replied, “It’s not important what it said, just know that Becky won’t be coming over for any more uncomfortable dinners.”

Iris stood up and gave him one of her hugs. “I’m happy for you, Bear. You deserve much better, and I know that one day you will have someone who truly believes in you with everything they have.” 

She gave him another hug and he walked upstairs excitedly, on his way to tell Joe about what happened. Iris walked over to where the paper had landed and un-crumpled it. She read: 

Barry,  
I can’t pretend that we have something special here anymore. It’s exhausting. Both you and I know that you – 

This was as far as Iris got before she knew she realized that she would be betraying Barry’s trust if she read any further. She re-crumpled the note and threw it away. Giving one last look at her mess, she flicked off the light switch. Cleaning it up would be a job for another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not add another chapter (sorry for saying this after each one but I just keep wanting to write more.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cute post-dance WA fluff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After every ep. so far of s2, all I can think is "More Iris. More WA/fluff." So here ya go. Enjoyy

Having stayed up late reminiscing over every aspect of homecoming night, Iris slept in until 2 p.m. She stretched her arms out while walking downstairs, attempting to wake herself up. The first thing Iris noticed was the mess she had chosen to ignore the night before. It looked even worse in the daytime than last night when she was turning the lights off. Barry sat on the couch reading a comic book, already wearing his day clothes. Makeup and heels threatened to collapse onto his lap if he moved even an inch. 

When Barry saw her enter the room he said, “Good morning sleepyhead. What were you doing until 4 a.m. anyways?” 

Iris shoved her stuff off the couch with her arm, and flopped onto the couch. She draped her arm around Barry, laid her head on his shoulder, and smirked. “Nothing you need to know about.” Barry predicted as much. He sighed contently and went back to reading. 

They stayed there for a while, so long, in fact, that it gave Iris a chance to slowly drift back into sleep. Barry shook her head off his shoulder when he realized she was sleeping. “Hey Iris,” he said. Iris realized what was he was going to say next before he even opened his mouth again. “It’s my turn.” 

She smiled. “I’ll be waiting upstairs.” 

Every Sunday morning, they took turns making each other breakfast in bed. Luckily, this week it was Barry’s turn to make her food. Iris was so weary from homecoming shenanigans and whatnot she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to tell the difference between flour and milk. She crawled back into her bed and curled up in her blankets like a burrito. Before she knew it, Barry was knocking on her open door with his foot to let her know breakfast was ready. She sat up in bed, more than ready for her extravagant feast. 

Barry held out the tray with all of Iris’s breakfast favorites: miniature pancakes with maple syrup, an omelet with cheddar cheese oozing out of the sides, a glass of orange juice, a smaller glass of chocolate milk, and half a grapefruit with just a touch of sugar sprinkled on top. At this point in their lives, they always knew exactly what the other wanted for Sunday morning breakfast (in this case, afternoon). 

“Looks amazing, Bear” Iris remarked as Barry set the tray in front of her. He tried to hide his satisfaction, but Iris could see right through him, as per usual. 

“Anything else I can get for you, madam?” he mocked, similar to what Iris had done the night before when asking him to dance. 

In her best British accent, Iris replied, “Eating utensils made out of gold with diamond embellishments. I’m afraid if you can’t make this happen, you’re fired.” 

Barry played along. He held his hand to his chest and gasped. “Madam, I’ll start searching right away.” He started to walk out of the room when, in between laughs, Iris shouted out, “Wait! There’s actually something you can give me.” 

Barry turned around to Iris patting an empty spot on her bed. 

“Company.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WA breakfast cuteness and Joe knows whats up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried making this one longer and I'm actually proud of it so enjoyyy ^_^

There they stayed for hours, talking about anything and everything that came to their minds. At one point, Iris jumped up and bolted downstairs. She came back up with a fresh can of whipped cream. Iris took the cap off and put some whipped cream on her remaining pancakes, then some directly into her mouth. 

“So,” Barry hesitated, thinking of a good one to pose next. Iris swallowed the whipped cream, popped a mini pancake in her mouth, and raised her eyebrows, curious. “Would you rather get sucked into a black hole, or never eat another brownie again?” 

After about thirty seconds of intense concentration, she came up with an answer. “Black hole for sure. With any luck, my misery would end sooner rather than later.” Barry shrugged. “Now, would you rather get hit by lightning or never meet your soulmate?” 

“I think I already have”, Barry thought, but obviously didn’t say. “Never meet my soulmate, I guess?” 

Iris nodded and finished off her glass of chocolate milk. Something had been eating at her since last night. She hated lying to her best friend. “Hey Barry,” she started. “Can I tell you something?” 

Barry mumbled. “Mhmm?” 

She tried to get the words out, but kept getting tongue-tied. “This may not – I mean, you probably – ugh, I was told – damn, is this how you feel all the time?” 

He chuckled at her comment, and said, “You can tell me anything, Iris. I’ll always be there for you, you know that, right?” 

“Yes, I know, and I will always be grateful for that,” Iris said. She closed her eyes, inhaled and exhaled deeply, just like she learned in her yoga elective. Once she composed herself, she found her words. “So, last night, I was trying to find you, and instead, Becky found me. You probably already knew this when I gave you her note. Anyways, some words were exchanged, but even before, I heard from my friends – ”  
“She started seeing Charlie Davis before we broke up.” Iris stared at him, puzzled. Noting her confusion, Barry continued talking. “That day, a few weeks ago – you know, the day when I got to school late because I couldn’t find my left shoe – I was walking into the back door of the school, which was closest to my class. I saw her and Charlie, you know…doing what couples do.” They shuddered simultaneously. Iris put some more whipped cream on her tongue. “I never told her I knew because – ” Barry’s rubbed his hands against the side of his head, a nervous habit he picked up after his mother’s murder. “Because I figured that maybe I could fix things. And now that I’m saying it out loud, I realize how stupid it sounds.” Iris pursed her lips. Barry took a deep breath. “So that’s the story. Can we put just pretend like Becky never happened?” 

“Indeed, Sir Allen.” Iris replied in her mock-British accent with a reassuring smile. She dabbed a bit of whipped cream on Barry’s nose, and he looked incredulously at his best friend. He wiped the cream off his nose and licked it off. 

Just then, they heard the front door open and the familiar thud of Joe’s suitcase thumping against the staircase. “We’re up here, Dad” Iris shouted out. Thirty seconds later, Joe appeared in the doorway. He came over to Iris and kissed her head. “How was the dance, baby?” 

Looking up at him, Iris said, “It was wonderful.” Then, looking at Barry, she grinned. “In every way.” 

“What are you doing home so early?” Barry asked Joe, wishing he had a few more hours alone with Iris. 

“I’m not home early, I come home at 6:30 every Sunday so we can order in dinner…” Joe replied slowly, as if he needed to remind Barry of something they’ve done for the past six years. 

Barry and Iris whipped their heads around to the clock on Iris’s nightstand. Sure enough, it read “6:34 P.M.” They shared sheepish grins and a look that read, “We totally lost track of time.” When they were together, time seemed to speed by faster than usual. 

Joe remembered something, and he knew Iris wouldn’t be happy about hearing it so he tried to speak quickly. “I noticed you didn’t take advantage of your free Sunday to clean up your mess downsta –” 

Iris frantically got up and started speaking. “So I haven’t showered since yesterday and I feel disgusting. You guys can pick out dinner, since I just finished breakfast, after all. Barry, could you take the dishes down?” She didn’t wait for an answer as she ran off across the hall to the bathroom. The door slammed shut and Barry swore he could hear her whisper “yesssssssss”. 

“She’ll do anything to avoid cleaning” Joe remarked, and Barry chuckled, agreeing. Her laziness was one of his favorite Iris quirks. Barry stood up and stretched, only now realizing how stiff his muscles felt after lounging on Iris’s bed for the past four hours. He picked up the tray and carried it downstairs with Joe right on his heels. As Barry loaded the dishes into the sink, Joe took out their carryout menu collection. 

Joe flipped through the menus absentmindedly. “So what do you want?” 

Barry was standing at the sink, humming the song he and Iris danced to last night. Without really trying to make anything clean, he scrubbed some soap on one of the plates. Barry didn’t realize that he’d spaced out again for what seemed like the eightieth time in the past 24 hours, and that Joe had tried to get his attention multiple times. Joe snapped his fingers repeatedly until he realized Barry’s head was anywhere but the kitchen. He cupped his hands over his mouth and in the direction of the staircase, shouted, “Iris, do you need any help up there?” 

It worked. Barry snapped out of his daze in time to realize he was attempting to scrub the butter-knife without a sponge. He dropped the knife into the sink and rubbed his eyes. “Jeez, how bad was it that time?” 

Joe walked over and put his hand on Barry’s shoulder. He knew what was going on in Barry’s mind but was certainly not about to embarrass himself, his foster kid and potentially his daughter by saying anything. “You’re clearly still exhausted from last night. Let me wash the dishes and you can take a nap.” 

Barry gave him a bear hug and mumbled a thank you into Joe’s shoulder. He trudged upstairs. Joe stared out the window in contemplation, realizing that the next few years would be very interesting in the West-Allen house.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Me attempting to make WA cleaning the West house cute.

Barry woke up a few hours later to Iris sitting on the floor, staring at the mess of makeup and clothes scattered around her. Her hands were in her lap and Barry knew she was trying to rack up the strength to clean up. 

“Want some help?” he asked, hanging onto the staircase. 

She looked up, not having seen him when he came downstairs. She stretched and rubbed her hands over her eyes. “Could you? I may graduate college before this mess goes away.” 

“Yeah, yeah. Of course. What do you want me do first?” Barry made his way over to the couch and was about to sit before he realized Iris had already started sorting stuff on top of it into piles of clothes, shoes, makeup, and hair products. 

“Let me go upstairs for a sec. Just keep sorting stuff while I’m gone.” She jumped up and hopped up the stairs two at a time. Barry sat down in the empty circle Iris occupied not ten seconds earlier and began sorting her stuff. 

One blue high heel here. A can of hairspray over there. Organizing this clutter was almost therapeutic for Barry, in a way. He came across a small, velvety, dark blue jewelry box to his right. Out of sheer curiosity Barry opened it and found a pair of earrings, a pair of simple gold studs. He hadn’t come across any jewelry yet, and there wasn’t a designated pile for it, so he balanced the box on his knee and picked up the next object, a small black stick. He assumed it was makeup and put it in that pile. 

It was then when Barry heard a loud boom. Before he could look up to see what it was he heard another one, then another, and a few more before seeing what caused the noise. At the bottom of the stairs there lay about 7 or 8 shoeboxes, all different colors and sizes. He saw a bunch of dress hangers flying sporadically through the air before crashing on top of the boxes. Next came a few empty makeup clutches, and an empty cardboard box. Following that was Iris herself, who stopped midway down the steps to admire her handiwork. She put her hands on her hips and looked triumphantly at the new mess she created. “Ready to go?” 

He was already starting to regret waking up from his nap. “Uhhh…”

She clapped. “Yes, excellent. We’ll do the easy part first. I’ll go find all my dresses and you can put them on hangers.” She collected the hangers in her arms and threw them at Barry, his surprise knocking the jewelry box off his knee. 

Iris danced around the house, finding dresses and throwing them at Barry. Iris usually had good aim, but now, when she wasn’t really trying, they landed everywhere – on top of his head, on top of the fireplace, and in the plant beside the window. Barry groaned and stood up, realizing that this would not be a sitting-down type job. 

One by one he hung up the dresses on the hangers and draped them over the couch. The floor was already starting to look walk-able again. Iris finished throwing clothes at him and lounged on the back of the couch over her freshly hung up clothes, eyes slowly drifting. A few moments later Barry hung up the last dress and drooped it over Iris’s face, for no particular reason other than to mess with her. She shrieked and jumped up, the dress landing in a heap on top of some shoeboxes. She glared and him and he shrugged. “Just doing my job, ma’am.” 

She rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll take these” while gathering up the dresses. Carefully avoiding the mess of shoeboxes, Iris made her way upstairs. Barry wasn’t quite sure what to do next, so he picked up the jewelry box that had somehow made its way under the couch and placed it in a safe place on top of the fireplace, no longer burdened by Iris’s clothing. 

“We’re doing shoes next, just put all of them in a pile and start pairing them up! I’ll be down in a few minutes.” Iris shouted from upstairs. Barry got on his hands and knees, looking for shoes and flinging them into what he thought was about the same place as he went along. He heard giggling behind him. Iris was watching him crawl along the floor, and she probably had been for at least a few seconds now. Her laughs were a bit muffled by her hand. 

“Okay, now. What do you want from me now?” Barry could feel his face burning.

Iris coughed to contain herself and ordered, “Pair ‘em up.” 

This didn’t come as a surprise to Barry, as she had directed him to do this about five minutes ago. That didn’t make him any more apt to do it. He winced and started to say “But I don’t kno – ” before getting interrupted.

“Oh, I’ll do it. You’re such a boy.” Iris pushed past him and sat on the floor in front of the shoe mountain. “Hand me the boxes.” 

Barry went over to the staircase and tossed the boxes halfheartedly at his friend, making sure not to hit her, of course. Iris matched up the shoes and placed them into the boxes accordingly in about a minute, a feat that probably could’ve taken Barry hours to figure out. 

“Hold out your arms,” Iris ordered. Barry followed suit, and she stacked the shoeboxes in his lanky arms. “Just put these anywhere on the floor in my closet.” 

Barry couldn’t really see where he was walking but he managed to get into Iris’s room without spilling the shoes everywhere. He stacked them neatly on the floor in her closet and shuffled back downstairs, where Iris was essentially done cleaning. She was done putting her makeup back in its empty clutches (rather, haphazardly shoving tubes and powders into wherever they fit best), and was now throwing everything in the empty box. “Put this on my bed, if you don’t mind.” 

Barry picked up the last box, eager to finally be done. He placed the box on her bed and happily made his way back downstairs. The nightmare was over. Iris was sitting on the finally clean couch reading her favorite magazine, with her feet propped up on the coffee table. Barry sat down next to her and picked up his unfinished comic book from earlier. Before opening it, he closed his eyes, taking in the moment.


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reassurance (and foreshadowing?) for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the last chapter is kinda short. I didn't want to drag this out longer than it had to be. Enjoy :)

A few moments later, Iris spoke. “Are you going to be okay at school tomorrow, Barry?” 

He opened his eyes. Iris was looking at him over her magazine with concerned eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Like, are you gonna be able to see Becky and Charlie together without going to hide in your crawlspace underneath the stage in the auditorium?” Barry’s eyes widened. Iris sighed. “Yes, I know about your crawlspace.”

Barry shook it off. “I thought we weren’t going to bring her up anymore?”

Iris shrugged. “Yeah, Barry, I remember. But I know you. I know how you have trouble letting things go, and even though you say you’re okay, I know that sometimes you’re…not.”

“I’m going to be fine, I really think I am. I just hope we can both move past this soon and…I don’t know.”

“What?”

He waved it off. “Nothing, it’s not relevant.” She looked disappointed, and he scrambled to say something to divert her attention. “I just wanted to thank you for being there for me for me today, last night, and for the past five years. I need you to know that I’ll be here for you whenever you need me.”

Iris’s frown turned into a gentle smile. “And I’ll always be there for you, too.” 

She moved to give his hand a reassuring pat when she felt a static shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so proud of that last line, you have no idea. Hope you enjoyed this fic ^_^


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